One car, 11 big tigers

ELEVEN tigers in one place is a lot of cat. Tigers are the biggest of the big cats, and these Siberian tigers are the biggest of the six tiger subspecies. But tigers don't hang out in groups like this - lions are the only social cat - and we all know tigers are very rare. So what gives?

Here's a clue. Look at the belly on the tiger at the top left. And the size of that tubby brute on the far right, by the car. Maybe they're pregnant - or maybe some eccentric granny has been overfeeding her menagerie of cats. This is Heilongjiang Northeast Tiger Forest Park in the far north-east of China. It contains between 500 and 800 tigers, reportedly bred from just eight animals when it was founded in 1986.

The Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) - also known as the Amur tiger - is classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Most of the estimated 400 Siberian tigers in the wild are in Russia, with a few in China. The wild ones, not unlike those in this tiger park, are heavily inbred, having passed through a genetic bottleneck in the 20th century, during which 95 per cent of all tigers were killed. "Siberian tigers have made a spectacular comeback since the 1930s, when the population fell as low as 20 to 30 animals," says Heather Sohl of WWF UK.

This means that although the Chinese park contains hundreds of Siberian tigers, and there are those wild ones in Russia, the population's genetic diversity - which is a good guide to its vulnerability to extinction - is equivalent to that of just 14 individuals (Mammalian Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.mambio.2011.01.011).

The more they inbreed the more loss of DNA information. This loss of DNA information can never be recovered.
The tigers and all other creatures, including man, are producing more mutations that are either neutral or harmful until they go extinct.
Evolution theory requires more genetic information not less. This is an impossiblity and reality follows the second law of thermodynamics every time.

Bruce
on February 16, 2012 11:38 PM

I don't get the clue. What does being pregnant have to do with 11 being together?

Shane
on February 17, 2012 12:38 AM

@Apobetic Your argument doesn't make sense to me. How can you say, 'are producing more mutations that are either neutral or harmful until they go extinct'? Why can't harmful DNA mutate into something that is benign or beneficial? Why can't beneficial DNA mutate into something more beneficial?

More importantly, why does Evolution theory require more genetic information, not less? And how does such a comment work in the context of the second law of thermodynamics?

@Bruce: being pregnant, nothing---but being overfed by someone, everything. These are half-tame tigers in a conservation park, receiving food handouts from the keepers. No wonder they flock to the meat-wagon.

Tim Smith
on February 17, 2012 12:49 PM

If you were an Indian woman washing clothes in a river, a tiger would not be a welcome sight. Tigers DO kill people, they are a danger and should be exterminated, This woolly minded emotionalism does not befit intelligent people. All the tigers in the world are not worth one human life.....

Are these tigers being bred by the Chinese only to be killed? If so, this is so wrong and another example of how Asia's demand for exotic animal parts is having such a huge negative impact on our planet's wildlife and ecosystems.

Maryann
on February 17, 2012 8:28 PM

Dear Tim Smith. The earth does not belong to one human. Human do not have dominence or more right to live over any other. Are you saying we should off everything so we can have the planet to ourselves? Life needs to coexist, not exterminate. Your view is very skewed.

Tim Smith
on February 18, 2012 7:18 PM

Dear Maryann.
OK, let's start by giving tigers refuge in your front room.... The population is expanding, humans are encroaching into new pastures.It's not ideal I know, but humans have been shaping the ecology for millenia. Where are the european lions, british bears and wolves. Top level predators do not have a role in this world anymore. There isn't room. Men, women and children are being killed and eaten. You can explain to a grieving mother why her child was killed by a tiger you wanted preserved, from the safety of the UK

Linda
on February 19, 2012 12:45 PM

Tim Smith: it's hard to believe that anyone could make such ignorant comments and still be able to spell. Just another example that education and even IQ is no indication of intelligence. Alot more men, women and children die daily from hunger, disease, crime, auto accidents and warfare than from wildlife predation. Actually it's human population that needs to be curtailed.

Tim Smith
on February 19, 2012 6:04 PM

Linda,
How do you propose curtailing the human population? All forms of homicide should be stopped. War, hunger, disease, whatever. We just happen to be talking about tigers.... There's no reason why tiger populations should not be preserved in zoos etc, but wild large predators are a no-no.
p.s. no need to get personal or be rude. We're just having a discussion.